Time To Burn
by bethanyanne
Summary: Who is Ziva getting e-mails from and what happened while she was down in Miami? She runs into an old contact a man she knew by the name of Ray Hoss, who turned out to be a former CIA agent, whose real name is Michael Weston.


**AN: I totally forgot to give thanks to my wonderful Beta, with whom this wouldn't be possible. I was so excited when I got her edited version that I rushed over here and posted it, and finally today thought I need to send her a thank you, and at the same time include a thank you in here, so this is in great appreciation to WonderfullyDreaming, I couldn't have done it with out you. **

**Chapter 1.**

Ziva spotted the woman first; she slipped around behind her to get a better advantage, then crept up and knocked her out with a blow to the side of the neck, effective in leaving the woman unconscious. She then saw a slightly overweight middle age man advancing towards her and she went to silence him too, when suddenly, she heard a gun cock at her head. The third man, half hidden by the shadows, hadn't made a sound on his approach, he just appeared as if out of thin air.

"Ziva David, NCIS." She said, not knowing whether or not that would help her situation any, with the man holding a gun to her head. Ziva hoped that a person this stealthily would be on her side and not the bad one.

"Mossad." The man said, but by the tone of his voice, it was obvious to Ziva that he knew her. Stepping out of the shadows, the man visibly relaxed his body, looking less rigid. Ziva could tell the man thought she was no threat because standing as such would only get you killed and you would only stand that way if you knew the person well enough.

"Ray?" She asked bewildered.

"Michael, Michael Weston, though the name you knew me by was Ray Hoss."

"You work in intelligence?"

"I_ worked _in intelligence," he emphasized "for the US government. Now I freelance. What is Ziva David former Mossad agent doing in Miami?" Michael asked curiously.

"Working a case for NCIS; was that your teammate I took out?"

"Yeah, Fiona and she isn't going to be too happy when she wakes up."

"They seldom are."

"Is this a case that we can assist you with Ziva David of NCIS?"

"Depends, what are you doing out here?" She asked.

"Working." Michael stated evasively.

"For whom?," Ziva said realizing that the man she knew as Ray Hoss said he was working freelance, and therefore could possibly be working for the cartel.

"I think it would be better if we discussed this somewhere else." With that he signaled to the other man on the pier, the man helped to lift Fiona up into Michael's arms.

"What's going on Mikey?" The other man asked as they started walking.

Ziva meet Sam, Sam, Ziva.

"She's NCIS, working a case against the Cartel I can only assume." Michael explained in his permanent stern and serious voice.

"Ah, that explains it." The older man said nodding to the passed out Fiona.

"Ziva was Mossad." Michael said.

"Like Israeli Mossad?"

"There is another kind?" Ziva asked.

"No, I'm just wondering how an Israeli assassin Mossad officer becomes an American NCIS agent." The older man quipped.

"Determination and heart. You have to want it bad enough." Ziva responded vaguely, following the two men off of the pier. Perhaps it was foolish but up until that night she had no leads on the Reynosa cartel. If they were working for the cartel she was going to follow this through, even if they weren't she would need all the help she could get.

"So how did you go from Ray Hoss to Michael Weston?" Ziva asked when they were outside Michael's loft.

"My real name is Michael Weston, Ray Hoss was a cover to get information from Mossad about the terrorist Liam O'Neil." He said.

"Who are you working for now Michael Weston?" Ziva emphasised.

"A kid by the name of Greg Connell, his wife was killed by the cartel; the police down here won't help him so he came to me for help."

"Why won't the police help him?" Ziva inquired.

"Because, they claim that Connell and his wife were drug runners for the Cartel. We were trying to locate Connell's daughter tonight. They said that they would hold her on the pier until he paid for the drugs."

"_Was_ he a drug runner?" Ziva had to ask.

"No. Neither was his wife. It wasn't a misunderstanding either. The Connells were working on getting the Cartel out of their neighborhood when they kidnapped his daughter and killed his wife. They planted enough evidence to make it look like the Connells were involved, so he came to us." Michael explained."Now your turn. What are you doing here?"

Ziva paused a moment, looking into Michael's eyes. She continued a little reluctantly. "Tracking the Cartel, we received information that suggested the head of the Reynosa Cartel was down here in Miami and so I was sent down to locate and eliminate her."

"NCIS is still letting you _eliminate_ people?"

"People like Paloma Reynosa yes."

"What did she do to get on NCIS's radar?" He asked.

"Ah, that I cannot tell you," Ziva said shaking her head slowly.

"Well unfortunately for you, I believe Paloma Reynosa has moved on. From what we were able to ascertain down in Mexico, it seems like she is working her way to Washington DC."

"You are sure of this?" Ziva asked a little startled.

"No. Give me tomorrow to work things over with my contacts and I can verify it for you."

As he said that the third man of his team, Sam, came out of the Michael's loft.

"Fi's awake and pissed." Sam said. "Sam Axe." He said offering out his hand to Ziva, properly introducing himself now that they were in friendly quarters.

"Special Agent Ziva David."

"I better go check on Fi, look Ziva don't go anywhere we might need your help with this Connell thing and I'm pretty sure we can figure out where Paloma Reynosa is headed."

"You're tracking Paloma Reynosa?" Sam said sounding impressed.

"Yes, I should check in with my boss."

Sam followed Michael into the loft, leaving Ziva outside alone. She dialed the number into her cell, and waited for the man to answer. "Yes?' The man on the other end answered. Ziva assumed the man saw her number, otherwise he would not have answered the phone so informally. "It's me." Ziva said. "I need to clear something with you."

"That something better have a good reason Agent David."

"Oh trust me, it does Director." Ziva said without humor.

Ziva had rung the Director and not Gibbs, partly because he wasn't in charge of this mission. Gibbs was in the loop about what Ziva was doing in Miami, but he wasn't part of it. The other part was that, if she knew the man she used to refer to as Ray Hoss as well as she thought she did, his help in locating Paloma Reynosa would come with a price.

A price that was over her head and one Director Vance would have to clear.

"What kind of price Agent David?" Vance asked when Ziva got done explaining the kind of help that Michael Weston could provide.

"The last time I worked with him he required information on a terrorist named Liam O'Neil. O'Neil was smuggling guns through Ireland for Hamas. After we provided the information he left, later on I was told that O'Neil's body was found in Ireland. A person by the name of MacBride killed him but I believe that it was this man who goes by the name of Michael Weston now. Even back then we suspected that he was intelligence I just never knew it was for the Americans."

"You say he is freelancing now."

"Yes, and I imagine that whatever information we give him might result in someone dying. Someone bad, but still someone nonetheless." Ziva said.

"When you find out whom he wants information on, call me. Then we'll go from there." Vance said.

"Alright, I imagine he will let me know shortly who that someone is." Ziva said, hanging up the phone just as the door opened again revealing the three of them, the woman looking no worse for wear.

"Let's go find out where your 'Paloma Reynosa' is so you can get back to doing whatever you do." She said a bit disgruntled, however the two men seemed fine.

"How do you propose we do that?" Ziva asked.

"We have one of her men at our facility. We thought we would go ask him." Fiona said slyly.

Ziva was beginning to wonder what type of operation this man had running down here when he had 'facilities' set up.


End file.
